Detroit Lions – Page 30

Five things to watch as Lions face Bears; plus injury updates, prediction

Despite a few reports to the contrary, the sky has not fallen for the Lions following a 48-42 loss to the Buffalo Bills.

Coming up on the short side is just a new phenomena for Detroit which hadn’t lost a game since September.

Heading to play the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field on Sunday, the Lions look to keep alive their streak on no back-to-back losses in more than two years.The last time they lost two straight was in October 2022.

It hasn’t happened by accident.

“You have to identify the issues and you have to attack the next preparation for the opponent, there’s got to be a level of urgency that is extremely high and you have to want to get that taste out of your mouth so bad, the taste of losing, that you’ll do anything it takes to prep yourself and you’re going to play at the highest level that you played all season,’’ coach Dan Campbell said.

He explained that the magic combination includes mindset, preparation and work ethic.

“It’s really that simple. It’s not anything else – I know this, you overreact on one, that’s not good either,’’ Campbell said.

While the Ford Field atmosphere is among the best in the NFL, the Lions have not lost a road game yet this season.

“Our job is to go play football and that’s what we’re going to continue to do. We lost two games, we have a chance to win out and accomplish everything that we want to accomplish,’’ defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn said. “So why should we sit back and wallow and think that the sky is falling? It’s dumb.”

Five things to watch:

ONE: Bears rookie quarterback Caleb Williams threw three touchdown passes in the second half of their first matchup which the Lions won, 23-20. Glenn said the key is to disguise coverages better because Williams is still learning to read defenses. “I think he’s playing really good football, and he just continues to get better. He’s taken a few hits, but he just continues to stand in there and push the ball down the field,’’ Campbell said. “He’s mobile, as we know, he can break contain, he keeps his eyes downfield. So, he’s a young quarterback in this League that is really continuing to improve and he’s got plenty of weapons.

TWO: The Lions defense has struggled with all the injuries and that includes a lack of takeaways. While the Bears are winless in their last eight games, in that stretch Williams has not thrown an interception. For the season he has 17 touchdowns and just five picks. “We have really a couple game drought of takeaways right now and that’s got to be a part of our identity. So, we have to get back to what we do and the way that we play because that’s how you give yourself the best opportunity to get takeaways. So, to be able to put some pressure on him and try to force him into making some decisions that are ill-advised, that’s big and that’s big for any opponent that you go against,’’ Campbell said.

THREE: With RB David Montgomery out with a knee injury, Jahmyr Gibbs is expected to carry a heavier load. He’ll have help from either Jermar Jefferson, Craig Reynolds or Sione Vaki. “(Gibbs) brings the explosive element, he’s getting better in the pass game, and then you see what he’s able to do in the run game, so we have a ton of confidence,’’ Campbell said. “I think for him it’s going to be, we’ve got to use and maximize the reps that we have for him, and be careful that we don’t give him too much. Last week the Lions had a season-low 48 rushing yards. Improving that number is an emphasis against the Bears.

FOUR: In the loss to the Bills, the Lions were down 14-0 in the first quarter. The offense managed just one first down in their first two possessions. So a quick start is another emphasis this week. “Coming from behind, it’s not impossible, but it’s hard. I think we put ourselves behind the eight ball a little bit, so yeah, starting fast and making sure we can get a lead is always great, obviously,’’ Goff said. “But yeah, you just want to keep that game close and stay in it until the very end, and unfortunately, we weren’t able to finish it off.”

FIVE: It’s a rare outdoor game for the Lions. They’ve been preparing for playing at Soldier Field by holding practices outdoors this week. “It brings a different level of juice to those guys outside. The bigs love it, we’ve got a lot of skill guys out there that are running around that enjoy it too,’’ Campbell said. “But yeah, I think that it fits us very well and I think it’ll be good for us out there.” Goff said he looks forward to playing at Lambeau and Soldier Field every season. The forecast calls for a high of 31 with partly cloudy skies. Not bad for Chicago in December..

LIONS INJURY UPDATE: RB David Montgomery (knee) and LB Jalen Reeves-Maybin (neck) are out; DB Brian Branch (calf), G Graham Glasgow (knee) and S Ifeatu Melifonwu (hand) are questionable.

BEARS INJURY UPDATE: OL Ryan Bates (concussion) is out; RB Travis Homer (hamstring) is doubtful; DB Jaylon Johnson (illness), DL Gervon Dexter Sr. (knee), OL Teven Jenkins (calf) and OL Braxton Jones (concussion) are questionable.

PREDICTION: Lions 35, ,Bears 27.

Lions Dan Campbell remains optimistic: ‘We write our own story’

ALLEN PARK — Dan Campbell’s message, coming off just the Lions’ second loss of the season, was simple, direct and very Campbell-esque.

“Look, nobody writes our story, we’re the only ones who write our own story. We have the pen, there’s a lot of football left and I think we’re looking forward to this,’’ Campbell said on Wednesday. “So you pick yourself up, dust yourself off and go back to basics.’’

The Lions (12-2) started preparing for Sunday’s matchup at the Chicago Bears (4-10), following Sunday’s 48-42 loss to the Bills. During the loss, defensive lineman Alim McNeill and safety Carlton Davis III were injured and lost for the season. No other NFL team has sustained so many losses on defense.

Still no one can convince Campbell that the sky is falling.

“I don’t believe it. We’ve got plenty here. I’ll tell you what, when we come out of a game and everything that we said we had to do, including our identity, we do that for 60 minutes and we lose a game, I’ll stand up here and tell you, ‘You know what, we just don’t have enough.’ Until that happens, you’re not going to hear me anything about what we have or don’t have, can we do this. We’ve got plenty here on the whole roster – we’ve got plenty on defense.’’

His belief in his squad is unwavering and genuine. And the fact he believes in them gives them more confidence.

“It’s funny, it’s relative because adversity two years ago was different than adversity right now. Watching him stand in the storm at 1-6, and 3-13 (in 2021) whatever, that’s for me what makes his words mean so much more now when we’re 12-2, facing our first loss in the last 12 weeks,’’ quarterback Jared Goff said.

“If that’s our adversity right now, we’ll be just fine, we’ll handle it, we’ll move on. I think when he stands in front of the room people listen and the way we handle adversity as a team has been pretty good,’’ Goff added.

It is not just the mindset that is key to getting back on track.

“What’s interesting, there are two things that unfold. One is the loss, right? When you haven’t lost since September. So there’s the loss element and then there’s the injury element. Everything gets compacted, you really need to address both and that’s what we did,’’ Campbell said.

First they have to go back to work and reposition themselves to play Sunday and learn from what happened against the Bills.

“And the other is to not lose confidence in the fact that we still have really good players here on defense and we have good coaches,’’ Campbell said. “We can play any way we need to play from that standpoint, as well as offense and special teams and still win games.’’

“It’s my job to alleviate stress in some areas and just balance the buoy, if you will, and we’ll do that,’’ the coach added.

This bunch is in an unusual position after winning 11 straight games. They’re still atop the NFC North where they are the only team without a division loss. Chicago is 0-4, Green Bay is 1-3 and Minnesota is 3-1.

Yes, it was a bad loss but the season is far from over. They’ve qualified for the playoffs but would love that No. 1 seed.

“That’s why our guys are so good, we’ve got a good group of guys, they don’t like losing,’’ Campbell said. “They don’t lose confidence, they get more aggravated like I do. We want to fix it, we don’t want to lose any more. That’s the plan.’’

INJURY UPDATE: Running back David Montgomery was getting a third opinion on his injured knee. Campbell said they are in a waiting mode with him so have not placed him on injured reserve. The coach sees it as a good sign. Initially, it was thought Montgomery might be out for the season. … Safety Ifeatu Melifonwu was back at practice, opening his window to get back in action after being on injured reserve since he injured his hand in Week 3. … Six players didn’t practice to get some rest on Wednesday. The injured sitting out were DB Brian Branch (calf), G Graham Glasgow (knee) and Montgomery.

Five reasons the Lions win streak was snapped in 48-42 loss to the Bills

DETROIT — The Detroit Lions’ 11-game win streak was snapped by a 48-42 Buffalo Bills win on Sunday. Touted as a possible Super Bowl preview, the game showed how much work the Lions (12-2) have to do.

It’s not like the season is over.

“I think that’s a danged good team, we’re a danged good team. They played really well and we didn’t, that’s why the game was lopsided for most of the game,’’ quarterback Jared Goff said. “They’re the class of the NFL we’d like to think we are too. They came out and played better than we did.’’

Coach Dan Campbell took the blame for Detroit’s first loss in 91 days.

“I just feel like we didn’t play at the same level as that team. Honestly, I put this on me, I just didn’t feel like I had them ready to go, not like we’ve been,’’ Campbell said. “You get away, maybe if you’re not quite all the way to a 10, but not against the Buffalo Bills, the Kansas City Chiefs or Green Bay Packers or Minnesota. It’s not going to be good enough and it wasn’t good enough today.’’

Goff would like to see the team learn from the loss and move on to win the final three regular season games — at Chicago, at San Francisco and home to the Vikings.

“We’ll be just fine. I’m sure there’ll be a ton of stuff written about the sky falling but, no, internally we’re good,’’ Goff said. “… It sucks to lose. We would’ve loved to win every game out all the way through the Super Bowl. Hopefully, we can look back on this one as a good learning for us, move on and use some of the stuff we learned in this game to help us win the next three.’’

Five reasons for the loss:

ONE: Bills quarterback Josh Allen is a handful – the Lions knew this before they took the field but still could not stop him. He threw for 362 yards and two touchdowns and did plenty of damage tucking the ball under his arm 11 times and running for 68 yards and two TDs. “He got us a few times. We knew, unless we were in certain coverages, we had to keep him hemmed in there and it was going to take a lot of discipline up front,’’ Campbell said. “Look, he poses a huge issue, he’s tough. We knew that going in, certainly we wanted to be able to handle it better and it was one of those days we couldn’t counter it on offense.’’

TWO: The defensive injuries seemed to have caught up with the Lions who have 13 defensemen on injured reserve. However, Dan Campbell said, “I don’t buy it. We can be better, we should’ve been better. We know how good they are but that team was more urgent than us overall.’’ And it got worse for the defense losing three players during the game. Defensive back Khalil Dorsey (ankle) is out for the season while Campbell suspects it will be the same for CB Carlton Davis III (jaw) and Alim McNeill (knee).

THREE: Jared Goff became the first player in NFL history to throw for 400-plus yards (494), 5-plus touchdowns (5) and zero interceptions in a loss. Not a great claim to fame. The offense stalled on first 2 possessions and all of a sudden the Bills were up 14-0. Detroit got within 10 late in game but the Bills always seemed to have an answer. “We wouldn’t have had this production had our quarterback not played as good as he did,’’ Campbell said. “He played top-notch. That’s asking a lot of any quarterback with 59 attempts that was big time.’’ He was 38 of 59 for 494 yards.

FOUR: For the second straight game, the run game was not as effective as it should be. “We only had 15 rushes, we never got our run game going which was going to be a point of emphasis, even out of those 15 carries, we could never get it going,’’ Campbell said. “That’s two weeks in a row it’s not good enough.’’ One reason is the way the game flowed, the Lions were playing from behind the whole way. Jahmyr Gibbs had just 13 rushing yards and a rushing touchdown while David Montgomery, who got a little banged up, had just 4. Gibbs also had 83 receiving yards and a touchdown while Montgomery had 31. The Lions had 48 rushing yards while the Bills had 197.

FIVE: Dan Campbell called an onside kick in the fourth quarter which was returned 37 yards to the Detroit 5-yard line, with a touchdown scored on the next play that gave the Bills the 45-28 lead early in the fourth quarter. “I thought we’d get the possession, I thought we’d get that ball. It was one of (Jake) Bates’ best kicks I’ve seen him have,’’ Campbell said. “Obviously sitting here hindsight, them taking it to the 3-yard line, yeah I wish I wouldn’t have done that, but it is what it is.’’

UP NEXT: Lions (12-2) at Chicago Bears, 1 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 22. The Bears (4-9) play at the Vikings (11-2) on Monday night.